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Re: New (to me anyway) idea on framing cutouts faster

Originally Posted by tefer2

Ha Ha, whats the suitcase for in pic 3?

You can see the white PVC we used for the vacuum to the left of the (blue) garbage can fastened to a long pole. That blue thing served as a container for catching the combs that came loose during vacuuming. The wind had damaged the structure of the combs and they were fragile.

Originally Posted by Acebird

...snip...the appearance of capped queen cells makes me think that some hives could be had by just setting up swarm traps had this colony been left alone.

Our consensus was that the colony lost the queen when a couple large pieces of comb fell during a thunderstorm, thus, the emergency queen cells in that picture. The homeowner was concerned about safety for the kids that traversed that area, so, the bees were coming down no matter what. I will have swarm traps in the area this Spring: Together, we took five colonies out of trees and water boxes, all in the same area; there must be a bee tree close by.

Originally Posted by dixiebooks

Lburou- Why do you mount the cutout combs upside down? -js

I was wanting experience doing this sort of removal. The beekeeper I helped do the job wanted the combs that way, he believes the bees just continue drawing the comb upward from the new comb as it faces the top.

I put the comb in its natural orientation when I am by myself, but I should report that the queen continues to lay in the comb and the bees build it to fill the frame fairly quickly, regardless of the orientation of the comb in the frame. I don't know how much remodeling of the cell structure the bees actually do, but they do well enough and they don't need any supervision by me....I don't think it matters how you put the comb in the frame, the bees adapt and overcome.

I helped get the bees and comb from three very high pecan trees. The bees in this picture were 25' up (the other two were 28' & 35' high). That ladder is about 14' high.